Same Night Awaits Us All
by PA1NK1LLER
Summary: Leo finds the companion he's always needed.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters etc.

A/N: This is my first ever fic so any feedback is appreciated, suggestions are welcomed.

A/N 2: This story takes place just after the episode _A Change is Gonna Come._

* * *

It had been two months since that fateful day at Camp David and Leo was back on his feet wandering the halls of the West Wing greeting everyone he was lucky enough to still be alive to see. After meeting with the President, CJ, Margaret and Josh, he went to the next person he wanted to see.

"Hey, Toby" Leo said with a grin on his face.

"Leo? What are you doing here? I thought you left." Toby replied as he got up and shook his hand and patting him the shoulder. They both continued talking as they sat down, Toby at his desk and Leo on the couch at the end of the room.

"I'm only coming in a couple of times a week to get a few things sorted." Leo explained. "So, how are things?"

"Well, I now I have two big jobs, both serving under the President of the United States: White House Communications director and White House Press Secretary, which I'm still adjusting to, by the way."

"Yeah, I saw your first briefing" Leo chuckled as he said it, ""CJ Cregg could be sent to Ramallah to swat suicide bombers with her purse?"" Leo quoted. Toby's face cringed, as he was clearly still embarrassed about it.

"Oh God, I'd hoped no one would bother me about that again." But with Leo's quotation he realised he was probably never going to let it go.

"Ah well, at least you didn't invent a secret plan to fight inflation" Both men laughed remembering when Josh did an even worse briefing; they were interrupted by a blonde girl poking her head through the door.

"Toby, you're late for this mornings briefing come on." She said and left. Toby just sighed while gathering some papers he needed for the briefing.

"Who was that?" Leo asked.

"The most annoying women I've ever had to work with." He replied as she came back in.

"Toby, come on, chop, chop."

"Alright, I'm going!" Toby said visibly annoyed as he left for the Press Room.

"Hi" Leo got up and said, startling her slightly; she didn't know he was there until now.

"Sorry, Mr. McGarry, didn't see you there."

"Do I know you?" he asked wondering how she recognised him so quickly.

"No, but I know you." She extended her right arm and shook his hand "I'm Annabeth Schott, I'm the new Deputy Press Secretary to the White House."

"Pleased to meet you and you can call me Leo"

"Sure thing, Leo." She said while they walked into her office.

"So, how long have you been here?" Leo asked.

"About six weeks now, still getting used to the multiple tasking."

"Well, Anna, I'm sure you'll do fine."

"Thanks, Le." She said jokingly.

"Please don't call me Le."

"Then please, don't call me Anna or Ann or Beth. Call me Annabeth." She said in a slightly less demanding tone than she would usually use because of whom she was talking to.

"Listen, Leo, I would love to just sit here and talk. But I've got a lot of work I need to do right now, so how about we have lunch later or something."

"Sure, what time?"

"Well, my Lunch break is at 12:30, so I'll meet you in the cafeteria then."

"Sure, see you later." Leo turned and walked out of her office. It was only until he got back to his new office that he started to ponder on what he just agreed to and whom he just met. He normally would just say, "Alright, I'll see you round" by the time they learned to use his first name. He had also never agreed to spend his lunch with someone he had only just met before and wasn't sure why he started now. It didn't matter now, he had made the appointment and he intended to stick to it because he knew there was something about her that interested him and he was eager to find out what it was.

* * *

A/N: If you like it thank you and stay tuned for more. If you didn't the next chapter'll be better I promise.


	2. Chapter 2

Leo was checking the time every minute while going through piles of paperwork, but despite the room-filled work left for him to get on with, his mind was elsewhere. He hadn't forgotten about his lunch arrangement with Annabeth, he was thinking about what he would say, why he liked her so much after only talking with her for no more than 5 minutes and what would result from this. Finally, the minute hand on his watch pointed to 5 with the hour hand pointing to the 12. Leo got up and made his way to the cafeteria to meet Annabeth.

When he arrived, Annabeth wasn't there yet, so Leo grabbed a tray and bought a tomato salad, he sat down at a small table for two reading a newspaper while waiting for Annabeth. After a while he looked at his watch again seeing Annabeth was 10 minutes overdue and thinking _Maybe THIS is why I don't make lunch arrangements. _

Eventually, she arrived fifteen minutes late and she was thankful that Leo was patient enough to wait for her. She walked over to the table with a turkey sandwich.

"Hey, Leo." With an apologetic look on her face. "Sorry I'm late. I lost track of time."

A very small part of Leo wanted to say something along the lines of "That's no excuse, when you make an appointment you stick to it" but quickly decided not too for two reasons, firstly, missing personal arrangements was how he eventually lost Jenny and didn't want to sound like a hypocrite. Secondly, he wanted to make a good impression. So he simply said "Don't worry about it, better late than never." And gestured for her to sit down and she complied.

"Leo have you changed your shirt since we last spoke?" Annabeth asked although this was more of a statement than a question. It had only been an hour since they last spoke.

"Yeah, Margaret was kind enough to get my dry cleaning, how could you tell?" Leo replied impressed by how observant she was.

"You were wearing a cream coloured shirt earlier now you're wearing a peach one, it's not that hard to notice."

"Apricot."

"Sorry, What?" Annabeth asked not knowing what he meant.

"It's apricot not peach." He explained.

"Oh, okay, you look nice in it, it actually makes you look kinda hot."

"Uh…thanks." Leo said a little unnerved by what she said, he then tried to change the subject "So how did you get hired?"

"Actually I applied for the job several months ago but no one even called me, so when they were looking for someone to replace CJ Cregg, I went in to the interview and told Toby that I was here for Deputy position and that I'd help him be a better Press Secretary."

"Why did you just go for Deputy?" Leo asked. This was something he was wondering since he met her.

"Well…I…uh." She hesitated with her answer.

"You…what?" urging her to continue.

"Well, I…I…I get a little scared when I stand on the podium." She finally answered, a little embarrassed.

"Oh, that's understandable." Leo replied trying to make her feel better before moving on "So, how did your first meeting with the President go?" he said trying to lighten the mood.

A smile came to Annabeth's face remembering how it went. "I remember that word for word. The first thing he asked me was "Mirabelle, are you actually old enough to be hired?""

"Yeah, names are always where he trips up and I can't really blame him on the age thing." Leo immediately wished he hadn't said that last part.

"Leo, how old do you think I am?" She asked with a tone of annoyance.

"I'd say about…Twenty-four." He guessed, this answer was a mixture of what he really thought and his desire not to get it wrong and offend her; his real answer would have been 19-21, after detecting the annoyance in her voice he could tell she was older than she looked.

"Aw really? How sweet of you. I'm actually Thirty-Nine." Leo's eyes widened, he couldn't believe that this woman who he initially thought had just gotten out of college was actually almost 40-years-old.

"Alright, continue." Leo said wanting to just continue rather than go off on a tangent.

"Well, then the President and I just talked about what my job would be and what I'm expected to do, you know that kinda thing."

"How did it feel, talking to the President?" Leo asked knowing that a lot of people he remembers are unable to speak in the presence of the President.

"When he got my name wrong-TWICE I might add-it took me about 10 seconds to tell him and there was the occasional stammer. But I eventually got through it okay." Annabeth said less convincingly than she hoped she would. "Alright, enough about me, what about you. What's your story?"

"I'm fifty-seven, I'm a recovering alcoholic, a Vietnam vet, a divorcee and I recently had a heart attack." He answered in a nonchalant tone. He then leapt on the opportunity to test Annabeth. "Those are all the things most people already know. But did you know that I was on the Olympic luge team in 1962."

"Wow, really!?" Annabeth bought it, she had the look of amazement on her face. Leo decided to take it a step further.

"Yeah, I was also a minor league baseball player until I blew out my knee." Leo told her looking at the expression her face.

"When was that?" She asked inquisitively

"1964." Leo answered starting to think she wasn't going for this one. He was right, she shook her head as she replied.

"No, I don't believe you. If you blew out your knee, you wouldn't be able to serve in Vietnam and also your leg looks pretty good with that swagger of yours."

"An interesting choice of words there, Annabeth. But yeah, that was a lie; I wanted to see far I could go before you'd stop believing me." He confessed. "And what swagger?" this was something he felt he just had to ask.

"You know, that weird walk you do which I'm sure quite a lot of girls find sexy."

"You're a very strange girl."

"And I think you're gorgeous." She said casually.

Leo had never met a woman who practically threw him off his feet this much before and he was eager to learn more about her when she said "Well, I better get back to my office now. It was nice talking with you Leo."

"We should do it again sometime."

"I'd like that. Alright, I'll see you around." And with that she left.

Leo then went back to his own office and sat there just thinking about the things he had learnt about Annabeth. She was one of those people who always had the ability to amaze people, she clearly didn't shy away from flirtation, she noticed almost anything and he could understand how Toby would think of her as a very annoying girl. Leo knew that he liked Annabeth and hoped to see more of her.


	3. Chapter 3

Annabeth made her way to her office after her rather eventful lunch with Leo. She sat down getting on with the work that she was doing before she left. Only a few minutes went by when Carol came in.

"Annabeth, CJ came by while you were gone, she wants to see you." She said.

"Did she say what she wanted?"

"No, but I think she was a little pissed that you took off without saying where you went."

It then struck Annabeth that she had never actually put a lunch break on her schedule she had lied to Leo, she was so caught up in the moment when she arranged it with him she didn't stop to think that she had to make time for it.

"Oh man," she grumbled as she got up and left.

* * *

Annabeth knocked on and opened the door to CJ's office. "You wanted to see me?" She asked mentally preparing herself for a scolding.

"Sit down." CJ said calmly and continued once Annabeth complied. "Okay, first things first, where did you go? And why did you just take off?"

"I was having lunch and I forgot to let Carol know." Annabeth explained knowing that it probably wasn't going to stop with that.

"Since when do you take lunch breaks?"

"I was meeting with someone." She said hesitantly.

"Who?"

"Leo McGarry."

"Leo McGarry?" She said sounding a bit skeptical.

"Yeah, I just met him this morning and we just agreed to meet for lunch, when the time we agreed to meet came, I was so caught up in work and when I realized I was late, I'd forgotten…"

"Annabeth" CJ interrupted "I'm not your Mother, I don't actually care about who you meet for lunch, I was just asking. I just need you to not let it happen again"

Annabeth settled down slightly and asked, "Okay sure. What did you really want to see me about?"

"Alright, well as you know, the China summit is in two days and since Toby is coming along, he'll be sitting in the meetings about the summit and he won't be able to do the briefings until after the trip." CJ explained.

"Okay." Annabeth said and let out a sigh knowing full well where this was going.

"So you're going to have to brief the press, starting tomorrow morning." CJ said very bluntly.

Annabeth had fear written all over her and it didn't take much for CJ to know it.

"So you want me to brief the press? In the briefing room? On the podium?" Annabeth asked nervously after a short pause.

"Oh, come on, Annabeth, you must have known when you signed up for this job it would involve actually talking to the press." CJ answered. "What do you hate about it?"

"Is it too much to say that I don't want the American people to know I'm too small for the podium?" Annabeth was actually lying and CJ could tell but she just decided to leave it at that since it was irrelevant.

"Alright, I'll tell you what, I'll tell them that until the China trip all briefings will be done in the back room without cameras', how's that." She offered.

"And during the summit?"

"Only at the start of it and if something big comes up during it."

Annabeth was more satisfied by this; it wasn't a perfect deal but at least she didn't have to do the briefings on short notice.

"Alright, that sounds good but what would you define as 'something big'?"

"I don't know, maybe if the President has a stroke or something."

"And I'm guessing that goes for remainder of this administration."

"Correct." CJ retorted.

"Okay, then. Anything else?" Annabeth asked as she got up.

"No, that's all."

Annabeth walked out without another word. Before she headed back to her office, she had to do something first, something which she wasn't going to like.

* * *

Annabeth walked up to Leo's office, the door was wide open, but he didn't see her because he was buried in work. She knocked on the door slightly catching Leo's attention instantly.

"Oh, hey, you" Leo smiled, he hadn't expected to see her again today, but here she was.

"Leo, can I talk to you a second?" She asked sitting down on the couch by the door with a visibly upset look on her face that gave Leo an indication that he wasn't going to like this.

"Yeah, sure, what is it?"

"Well, the thing is I…uh…well I wasn't being completely honest with you when we met this morning."

"What do you mean?" Leo said more than a bit confused.

"Well, the thing is I told you I had a lunch break and that we would meet then. Well…oh gosh, okay there's no way I can work my way around saying this so I'll just go right in." She was very nervous about how she was going to say this. "I lied. I didn't really have a lunch break, I was so caught up in the moment I didn't actually think about what I was saying and when I left to meet with you, I still hadn't said anything to anyone."

Leo actually didn't understand why Annabeth was telling him this, he thought there must be more if Annabeth was telling him instead of just leaving it alone and pretending it didn't happen.

"Okay, so why are you telling me this?"

"Because I just got chewed out by CJ for taking off. Look, Leo, don't take this personally 'cos you're a nice guy and I like you but I don't think it's a good idea that we do it again." She felt terrible for saying this, at the end of their lunch she said she'd be more than willing to do it again, she didn't like this one bit.

"Alright, okay." Leo nodded as he replied.

"Sorry." Annabeth finally said as she walked out to get back to her office.

Leo removed his glasses putting them on the table in front of him and let out a huge sigh. He was feeling a variety of feelings, disappointment was one of them but perhaps the one that was mostly on his mind was confusion. He didn't know what he was really feeling but questions were now rushing through his head about why he had met this girl three times in one day and all of them left him wondering what was going on in his own head, why this was now dominating his thoughts, why he cared about whether he would see more of her not. But above all, he thought that if both of them had actually put aside what they doing to bond with someone they only knew for five minutes.

Eventually, Leo just gave up and returned to his work, or at least he tried to because not four minutes into it he heard another knock at the door and CJ was standing there.

"Leo, can I ask you something?"

"Sure, what?"

"Okay, did you meet with the new Deputy Press Secretary for lunch earlier?"

At the back of Leo's mind was annoyance now, it seemed that someone was now just playing a very irritating joke on him.

"Who? Annabeth? Yeah."

"You did? And you're on first name terms with her?" CJ was surprised she had known Leo far too long to believe Annabeth's story, but she could hardly believe it when Leo confirmed it.

"Yeah, she's a very interesting girl. And frankly, I only met her this morning and I'm already starting to like her, although just when I seem to move on it, I'm suddenly reminded of it."

CJ just couldn't believe this at all. Leo was being a completely different person.

"Ok-ay, that's all I needed to know. I'll see you later." CJ just left deciding that it was just best to mind her own business, she only needed Leo to confirm that Annabeth had lunch with him during the time she was gone.

Leo then just got back to work, hoping this wasn't going to come up again.

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**A/N: So what do you think? Read and review, it's all good. **


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